


daemon irrepit callidus

by retrofuturing



Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: :), F/M, Not Beta'd, boy oh boy do i love vamps, might add more oneshots later!, vampire!lucio - Freeform, yeah!!!!!!!!!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-20
Updated: 2019-07-31
Packaged: 2019-11-25 23:40:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18172979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/retrofuturing/pseuds/retrofuturing
Summary: If eyes are windows to the soul, he doesn’t have one.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this is the most self indulgent thing I've ever written, so enjoy.

I watch him take a long sip of the dark red liquid, his eyes never leaving mine. I’m always shocked with how pale they are, in comparison to his character. If eyes are windows to the soul, he doesn’t have one. His tongue swipes across his teeth, the sharp canines glinting in the low candlelight of the dining room. 

He sits across from me, a long dining table separating us. And yet it feels impossibly intimate. We are alone, with the exception of a few mindless servants standing, waiting by the doors or refilling our drinks, serving me food. The Count doesn’t eat. But he watches me as I do, and I don’t trust him enough to take my eyes off of him, in turn. He’s a bird of prey and I am his almost willing meal. 

I look at my own dark wine, unable to keep myself from drawing comparisons between it and the Count’s drink of choice. My own face is reflected back up at me, lips stained with the drink, and I wonder what my complexion will look when the Count is done with me. 

“I have no intention of draining you of your blood, sweeting,” My eyes snap back up to him, and he has that insufferable smirk on his face. Of course he’s been hearing my thoughts. 

“No?” I’m not sure if I’m disappointed or not. I won’t dwell on it, not now. 

“Not without your gracious consent,” 

“Is everyone afforded that generosity, or am I just lucky?” I ask, pointedly looking at his drink. He lifts it up in a mock toast towards me, raising an eyebrow.

“You’ll be very lucky, my dear, if everything goes how I want it,” He puts his drink down after a hearty swig of its contents, and before I’ve blinked, he’s behind me. He brushes my hair back from my shoulder, uncovering my neck to the cold of the room. But not for long, as his mouth is soon hovering right above the arch of my neck as I lean it to the side. His breath is cool against my skin. My breath stills in anticipation. 

“And how do you want it?” I breathe, heart racing, and I know he can hear it. I’m sure he can feel my pulse, quick and restless, with how close he’s standing to my neck. He’s still for a moment. And then his cold tongue meets my skin a second before his lips. He moves slow, and he smirks against my neck when my breathing quickens. I want to reach up and touch him, tangle my hand in his hair, scratch up and down his arm, leave marks on him that I know won’t appear- just do something. But when I feel the gentle scrape of a incisor against my neck, all thoughts disappear from my mind. I’m not afraid, and I realize I may want this more than I had previously thought. 

“Lucio,” It’s quiet as he pulls back from my neck, and he spins the chair I’m sitting in, so I’m directly facing him. He’s looking down at me, and I cannot tell what emotion is dancing around his soulless eyes. I don’t particularly care, either. 

“What do you want, sweetmeat?” He asks, mocking before he leans in. “Do you want me to lean you back right here and sate my thirst, or would you rather me lay you down on this table and fuck you senseless?” He pauses, thinking. “Or both?” It’s whispered in my ear, which he gives a light bite. It doesn’t draw blood, but it stings nonetheless. And I know that he knows exactly what I’m about to say, that he’d know even if I didn’t speak it into the room. But he’s going to make me say it- of course. “Or I can just let you go back to your usual boring rout-”

“Anything, everything. Just let me have it,” I interrupt him, standing suddenly. I’m on his level now, and he smiles, cold and unforgiving. He spins me around and into a low dip, as if we were dancing. I tilt my head back, exposing my neck to him once again. He tips his own towards my neck, and I can’t breathe as he presses a kiss to it once again. 

“My greedy, greedy little girl,”


	2. hunt

Full moons in Vesuvia are gorgeous, particularly in the palace’s garden. An ethereal glow blankets the entire grounds, casting long shadows across the grass and illuminating the normally dark corners of the garden, making it perfect for midnight strolls or other nightly activities. A gentle wind rustles the leaves, causing goosebumps to cover my arms and legs. Vesuvia, at this time of year, is normally quite warm. But it always seems to be cold at the palace, something I haven’t truly noticed until this moment. And as I stand, slightly shivering in the hedge maze, I realize I might have made a little mistake. 

 

_ The Count looked down the table at me, lips curling up into a cruel smile. I try to ignore the red in his glass, try to avoid wondering who it was. If they’re still living, or if they’ve been fully drained and left to rot.  _

 

_ “Let’s play a game,” He said, a glint in his eye. I raised an eyebrow.  _

 

_ “Oh?” I said, intrigued. While not the most serious of people, Lucio doesn’t seem the type for frivolous games. Perhaps I just don’t know him well enough. It feels like every time I get close to knowing him better, he pulls away. “What kind of game?”  _

 

_ He hums. “I’ve grown tired of simply seducing you for a few drops of blood,” He steepled his fingers, tapping his pointers against his mouth. _

 

_ “What do you suggest instead, you hunt me down?” I say, immediately regretting it when his eyes darken.  _

 

_ “That, sweeting, is definitely preferable.” He smiles, his sharp canines catching the light dangerously. “If I win, I get to enjoy the spoils of my win.”  _

 

_ “And if I win?” I ask. He raises an eyebrow.  _

 

_ “In the unlikely event that you win, I will…” He trails off, thinking of an adequate prize. “I will let you visit the city once every two weeks from here on out.” _

 

_ It’s not like I’m here against my will, but... that certainly  _ is _ enticing. Enticing enough that I agree to his wager, and set out to get ready to hide until morning. _

 

I clearly had overestimated how well I would perform at this game. I had felt so powerful in that moment, making a deal with him that I felt positive that I could win. But as I try to shallow my breathing and move quietly through the Count’s hedge maze, I feel powerless. I know that he’ll find me- there’s no way of winning this game, that became clear enough within the first hour of me stumbling around outside. And that is almost more exciting than the prospect of somehow coming out of this the victor. He’ll find me- it’s just a matter of  _ when _ . 

 

I avoid the sticks and dead leaves that litter the paths of the maze, listening carefully to the wilderness surrounding me. It certainly feels like Lucio is just playing with me now, as the occasional sensation of being watched crashes over me as I continue trekking through the maze. I should have never entered the maze, because while it offers good cover, the winding passages have already got me more lost than is preferable in this situation. And the Count certainly knows his way around the maze, at least better than I do. 

 

The moon is high in the sky now, the occasional cloud crossing its surface and plunging the world into an inky black night. Every time this happens, I half expect Lucio to appear once the cloud moves along, but I’m always alone. And that is more terrifying than if he just showed up and took his prize. 

I’ve begun moving with more urgency through the maze, still avoiding any branches that might catch my scent or sticks that might snap and call attention to my location. I can feel myself getting more and more lost, and claustrophobia has started to set in when I turn into a less worn down path. I’m just thinking that maybe if I can find my way to the outer edge again I can get out of the maze and escape to a different part of the garden when something at the end of the path catches my eye. 

 

A pale white wolf stares at me from the dark end of the path I’d just turned upon. Large red eyes glow in the darkness, making the wolf’s entire figure seem illuminated in the moonlight. I stop dead in my tracks, breath stilling and gaze locked with the wolf. And I know, with that, that I have lost the game. He’s found me. 

 

The wolf’s breath mists as he breathes out, giving him the illusion of breathing smoke, and for a moment, I’m under the spell. But then I blink and the wolf is gone, replaced by Lucio’s slender figure. He’s closer now, barely two steps away from me. I instinctively take a small step back, but he catches me around my waist before I can move out of his reach. 

 

He pulls me against him, and I struggle to not place my hands on his chest as I try not to stumble into him. With a much gentler hand than I expected, he moves my hair from my neck and starts to lean down, painfully slow. My breathing picks up, and I can hear his own breath hitch at the sight of my pulse racing. And then, where I expected the sharp pinch of his teeth in my throat, there is simply his lips.  

 

“I win,” He breathes against my neck, and I can feel him smiling. “And I intend to take what’s mine.”

**Author's Note:**

> also posted on my tumblr (summercourtship)! Might add more oneshots if I want to keep writing some vamp Lucio.


End file.
